Tips To Convert Leads Into Lifelong Customers

May 24, 2022

Whether you’re a small B2B firm, an established D2C company, or fall somewhere in between, you need a steady stream of new customers to keep your business thriving, all while nurturing existing customer relationships. Of course, B2B and D2C have unique business models and selling cycles that necessitate different lead generation strategies, but the end goal is always the same – converting leads into revenue-generating customers. This blog will focus on B2B, yet many of these ideas can be applied to and inform D2C lead gen processes.

 

Generating more quality leads is a priority goal for 79% of marketers worldwide and B2B companies with mature lead generation processes enjoy 133% more revenue than average companies.¹ Yet, according to CSO Insights, 63% of businesses report struggling with lead generation. If you’re a B2B company that falls within this category – struggling to generate qualified leads and then converting them into profitable customers – read further for tips and strategies that will guide you through the sales funnel and buyer’s journey.

Vetting Prospects

Companies with successful lead gen outcomes dedicate significant time to researching and targeting potential prospects. This is the opportunity to vet leads that offer no value to your business versus capturing qualified prospects interested in learning more about your products or services.

Utilizing a lead form to gather initial information can help identify if a company warrants further engagement. Start by capturing these fields: name, email, phone number, company website, industry focus, and company size/number of employees. Once you’ve collected this info on preliminary leads, you can then dive deeper into researching each one. This discovery phase includes:

1. Visiting their site to learn about their business, history, objectives, and attitudes to help you identify similarities in your companies and if your product or services align with their needs.
2. Knowing each lead’s company size helps rule out ones that are either too small or too large for your product or service to make an effective impact. It can also indicate which resources and how many you use to entice further engagement.
3. Searching their social channels and industry news outlets to provide necessary context such as upcoming events they’re participating in, new hires, plans for expansion, and so on. This intel can help when crafting targeted communications in the next phase.
4. Conducting a high-level competitive review to determine any white space or messaging voids in the potential customer’s business that you can leverage when personalizing future communication efforts.

Prioritizing prospects saves time in the long run and ensures you’re putting your strongest efforts into those most likely to become customers.

Digital Marketing & Personalization

According to Biznology, today’s sales process takes 22% longer than 5 years ago. The B2B sales cycle requires multiple communications in a consistent cadence along with a variety of tactics and touchpoints to keep your business top of mind. Now that you’ve completed the research phase and have vetted out the strongest potential customers, it’s time to engage deeper.

One of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to communicate to potential customers is digital. Here are some key digital tactics for connecting with and starting to build a relationship with potential customers:

Let’s take a deeper dive with these three valuable tools:

• Email: Demand Gen indicates that 53% of marketers say email has been the most effective channel for early-stage lead generation. Email is the perfect tool for personalized messages that cater to the prospects’ own challenges or individual needs. What can your company offer your prospects? Make sure to be solution-focused yet genuine, relatable, relevant, and timely. Use an impactful subject line and clear call to action such as, “Can you connect for a 30-min call between 1:00 and 3:00 Thursday?”
• Social Media: 84% of CEOs and VPs use social media to make purchasing decisions and 66% of marketers use social media to generate leads.² Social platforms reach the masses, increase awareness and drive traffic to your company’s website and with concise calls to action, can be a great lead gen tool encouraging additional engagement. Use social channels for offers, discounts, or for leads to access further information such as e-papers, case studies, customer testimonials, or quick surveys. Make sure each call-to-action links to a specific landing page where the prospects can easily find the information they’re expecting.
• CRMs and Automation: There are a plethora of CRM platforms available, and if you’re currently not using one, you should be. CRM software allows for contact management, lead segmentation (grouping similar businesses into segments), lead qualification, and automation. Automation removes the manual aspects and repetitiveness of managing leads. It allows your sales and marketing teams the ability to handle dozens, hundreds, or even thousands more leads without maximizing capacity. This lets your business focus on growth without worrying about capacity, expansion, and expenses holding you back.”³

 

Nurturing Relationships

Nurturing leads can increase sales by 50%.⁴ And according to Marketing Sherpa, 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. The number one reason is the lack of customer nurture. You’ve done your due diligence in finding leads, researching the strongest potential prospects, and making several connection touchpoints that hopefully have resulted in generating sales. Maintaining these converted leads is just as important as generating them. Invite customers to in-person and virtual events, send them industry-focused articles and share insights as thought leadership tactics, and keep them in the loop on your new products and services that will continue to support their business needs.

We’re here to help! Contact us to learn more lead generation strategies and read our blog on why Blogs Are As Important As Ever as a lead-generating tactic.

 

^{1,2, 4} Cience Blog, 20+22 Game-Changing Lead Gen Statistics for 2022
³ trueNorth Blog, Best CRM Platforms For Every Business Type, March 10, 2022